The first solar-powered Internet and voice service provider in West Africa, Tizeti, plans to expand its operations there as well as into Ghana and Togo, two new neighboring countries, as part of its commitment to closing the digital divide in Africa. It also plans to investigate listing its Nigerian subsidiary.
The company is investigating an Initial Public Offer (IPO) in the stock market for investors/shareholders with over 2.8 million subscribers on its platform, over N11 billion in revenue over 10 years, and no debt, while setting its sights on expanding its footprint across the Francophone and Anglophone countries in West Africa.
The Founder and CEO of Tizeti, Kendall Ananyi, stressed that operators like Tizeti must expand to ensure that more Africans have access to trustworthy, affordable, and truly unlimited internet from Tizeti during the second installment of the company’s yearly event, dubbed “NeXTGEN 2.0: The Next Frontier,” which took place over the weekend.
He claims that Tizeti has been offering inexpensive unlimited Internet access in Nigeria and Ghana utilizing solar towers, which has resulted in cost savings of between 30% and 50% on data cap plans and elevated it above its rivals.
“This growth is crucial for the continent and for us. We have expanded dramatically over the past five years, turning a profit in three of the last four years, and this year we paid our first dividend. With 2.8 million customers in Nigeria, we presently have over 3884 hotspot spots and have built 1 tower per month since we began.
Tizeti currently provides about 190TBPS of data per day, which is equivalent to around 20% of the amount provided by major Nigerian carriers with coverage in 36 states. We are currently Nigeria’s top fixed Internet service provider in terms of customers and active users, as well as the ISP of 2022, according to data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) website and internal data. And there is still a lot of room for improvement.
Nearly 900 million Africans do not have access to the internet, making up about 26% of the continent’s entire population. To finance our upcoming expansion phase, we are currently looking into the public markets for shares and debt. We have our NASDAQ ticker booked, and as we are an LSE-Companies to Inspire, we are also looking into the London Stock Exchange and the Nigerian Exchange, or NGX, according to Ananyi.
Ifeanyi Okonkwo, co-founder and COO of Tizeti, spoke about the Francophone growth and emphasized the increasing submarine cable investments in Africa to date as well as the lack of middle-mile and last-mile infrastructure that moves the capacity where it is needed. Tizeti hopes to close the digital divide and connect more Africans to the internet with the expansion of its infrastructure across West Africa.
We have looked at their populations, their proportional contributions to GDP, the frequency of higher and tertiary institutions, and other pool characteristics, and we feel that Africa presents the most substantial prospective demand for broadband development, said Okonkwo.
Tizeti also introduced new connectivity options, including Tizeti Turbo Connect, which can deliver up to 1000MBPS using new technologies and up to 150MBPS over fiber to homes and businesses. The company also disclosed new energy plans that utilize solar and wind energy at all of its base stations to reduce the expense of diesel consumption. Visit https://wifi.com.ng/presignup to pre-register for Tizeti’s new sites if you’re interested.
